Fact check: The candidates on coal vs. natural gas

The coal industry is down, as both candidates have acknowledged, but that change can also be traced to market forces and the increase in natural gas production — the “tremendous wealth right under our feet” that Trump mentioned Sunday night at the debate.

Clinton noted that the increase in natural gas production serves as a transitional “bridge to more renewable fuels” but that coal country is in need of revitalization. Energy generated from natural gas has gained while power generated from coal has declined over the last decade; those two sources were almost equal in 2015.